Yeah, I liked it for a pilot. There were some good laugh out loud moments. It irks me that the circle of friends is all white. And that they somehow managed to find a white actress named Jemima, of all things, to play one of them.

I really liked it but felt uncomfortable in moments that I think the show is well-aware of what it is doing. I know these kind of girls and I have been in similar circumstances (the job and parent issues). I like to think I am and will not that co-dependent on my parents but the first 5 minutes where her parents cut her off were like a bad premonition.

I loved the Chris Eigeman cameo as the boss who tells Hannah the other person in the office they hired is paid because she knows photoshop.

Adam Driver plays creepy boyfriend very well and Andrew Rannells is going to be in either next week's episode or the following week.

Jemima Kirke was in Tiny Furniture as a similar wallflower to Hannah and abettor to her poor decision-making. I think she and Lena Dunham have been real-life friends for a while.

Tiny Furniture for a debut is very good though I was surprised Criterion selected it. Certain similarities to the pilot such as uncomfortable sex scenes with the worst guys ever and Dunham as the lead in an arrested development but it is pretty raw, Dunham's mother, Laurie Simmons, and sister play her mother and sister. The pilot is a much more polished product (Dunham's acting and comedic timing are a lot better) and yet I can think of only a handful of shows (Louie as one example) that are this open and frank about what is.

"the first 5 minutes where her parents cut her off were like a bad premonition."

For me they were a good premonition. The parents' wanting to give tough love was admirable to me, and by the same token, Hannah had some legitimate reasons for staying under their financial support. Both sides of the issue were accurate to real life situations. At that point I knew I would love the series.

"The gods who nurse this universe think little of mortals' cares. They sit in crowds on exclusive clouds and laugh at our love affairs. I might have had a real romance if they'd given me a chance. I loved him, but he didn't love me. I wanted him, but he didn't want me. Then the gods had a spree and indulged in another whim. Now he loves me, but I don't love him." - Cole Porter

False equivalency, yes, and worse that it was put out on the internet which will never go away. But I get the fact they are trying to deal with the backlash (some of which is unfair and fair game) but that is just a stupid way of answering it. Honestly, I am glad they are not trying to pretend they know how to represent people they have had little interaction or experience with rather than have things like Sapphire pretending to know anything about living under the welfare system in the Reagan 80's (black or white, Precious/Push was pretty terrible in its class issues) or something as so acceptedly middle-brow as Chuck Lorre representing nerds/geeks/smart people on TBBT. But it is also the first episode and I have no idea how diverse it is supposed to be and critic screeners only got 3 out of I think 10 episodes.

I never heard this much buzz ping-pong of good and negative press for a show before even the second episode has aired.

"The gods who nurse this universe think little of mortals' cares. They sit in crowds on exclusive clouds and laugh at our love affairs. I might have had a real romance if they'd given me a chance. I loved him, but he didn't love me. I wanted him, but he didn't want me. Then the gods had a spree and indulged in another whim. Now he loves me, but I don't love him." - Cole Porter

Ugh. She should really just shut up. I get the criticism, and I also get (I think) her point, but she's not doing herself any favours by how she expresses it--does she blog while drunk? I guess she's a story editor or something--she's not listed on the scripts as one of the co-writers, at least up to episode 8...

That's how I feel. Her comments, while stupid, aren't the equivalent of (to bring up another thread) Mel Gibson's diatribes or anything similar anyway. And I think it must be frustrating when you are writing something based on your own experiences and people complain that you need to incorporate more races, etc (though I can see both points). However, like I said, someone really needs to de-activate her twitter account or something, she made her point, but to now write endless diatribes about it is not doing her any favours.

It's something to note that Lena's whole attitude while doing press for the show is the opposite of that tweet (and she's pretty active on Twitter too and nothing is on par, she is just posting photos of her meeting other famous people) and she has joked about the negative pull-quotes the show did get, much like she handled Tiny Furniture's response.

"The gods who nurse this universe think little of mortals' cares. They sit in crowds on exclusive clouds and laugh at our love affairs. I might have had a real romance if they'd given me a chance. I loved him, but he didn't love me. I wanted him, but he didn't want me. Then the gods had a spree and indulged in another whim. Now he loves me, but I don't love him." - Cole Porter

Fair enough. I find it funny, but it's certainly the kind of show I can pretty easily understand why some wouldn't.

MrMidwest--I really appreciated, and agree with the piece from The Atlantic you posted. I think where the discussion should be directed at is getting more diversity behind the scenes. One reason I feel Girls is unfairly singled out, and I admit I still haven't really made up my mind on this, is when Dunham was hired by HBO they knew what they were getting. She cast and hired friends and people she had worked with before, and over a year back when I first heard about the development process she made that clear.

That's why I don't really get the point of the second link you posted--sure the woman who wrote it went to her school, had similar experiences, and isn't white. But Dunham, in her defence, has always said that this reflects her personal experience, and nepotism or not, it quite literally does. I found some of the discussion under the post hysterical--there's a thread of people praising what Seinfeld did when they had an episode that owned up to the show's overtly white-ness by having an episode where George constantly tries to prove he has black friends, and doesn't. That episode was done in typical Seinfeld fashion as a reaction to the white criticism--and came after YEARS of the criticism (and didn't exactly cause the show to have more lead characters who weren't white in later episodes). Just bizarre.